PETER'S SUPPORTERS UPDATE

It’s the last day of September and as promised I have sat down at home in England to bring all the friends of LEOT up to date with our news.

It’s been a busy year for me as I have made five visits to meet with the Laos Government or to help out with the running of our school.

As autumn begins in England it marks the end of my working career in the Truck Industry. Next year I will split my time between my family in England and my second family at the LEOT School in Laos.

It’s great news that the school is prospering and has just opened for its third year. We had just over 250 applicants for places this year and are pleased to have started classes with just over 160 pupils. We have even opened the school on Saturdays for a drop in beginner’s class.

None of this would have been possible without the help of many people.

Our joint founders Alan and Nick for laying down such wonderful foundations.

Our volunteers that give so much of their time at their own cost.

I must give a very special thanks to Jeannette for taking on the position of school Director this year.

Thanks to all our young Laos teachers for their enthusiasm and joy in teaching at our school.

I mustn’t forget baby Tonglet the newest member of our community.

So what are the achievements of the year?

The school is a vibrant and a happy place. 

It was full with laughter and fun when we held our recent awards day and presented certificates of achievement to 110 students for completing their courses.

Our scholarship students continue to achieve great results at University and we are proud to see them qualify in subjects from Teaching to Accountancy and from Air Traffic Controllers to Dentists. We are proud that we have found places for 4 new students this month and all will start their courses in the next two weeks.

It is also important to us that we are part of the community we live in. We were very proud to be joined by many officials from our local villages to celebrate awards day.

We have completed several projects locally helping to provide water to a local school and a bore hole for the school for deaf children.

It was fantastic to be asked to join with a Lao project to provide equipment for a local school. We plan to help them install electricity and repaint class rooms

We are helping our own village install toilets in the local meeting room.

Our biggest project is within the school.

This week we are extending our drainage system

Installing projectors in all the class rooms

Improving the ventilation system

We are most importantly a school teaching English. Jeannette and Clare arrived early to carry our teacher training on our new interactive curriculum from Oxford University. Ken and Tricia have also given us help and advice. We look forward to seeing them at the school in January.

None of this would be possible without our supporters that provide our funding

Individual Sponsors that give students four years financial support to our scholarship students

Heath & Reach WI for providing over 1500 jumpers for village children. They have just started a village programme to provide medical equipment for our local community

The Rotary Club of Leighton Buzzard for giving funding to our activities

Various sponsors that have provided us with laptop computers

                         

Go philanthropic Foundation for your visit in March and your funding of both the school and scholarship scheme.

To all our funders who remain anonymous

Wow it’s quite a list.

I’m sorry I have missed out some events and people.

Even if I haven’t mentioned you I know you are making a real difference to our students

Many Thanks

Peter

SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT NEWS

CONGRATULATIONS FAE

LEOT student Fae graduated this week in Vientiane after five years of study and has qualified in Accountancy. 

We are very proud of her success. Very well done

Fae was born in Bad Hadien (Luang Prabang) . She comes from a disadvantaged family having lost her Father before she started her studies. The help of LEOT was essential in enabling her to complete her course.

MEET OUR NEW SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS

 Its fantastic that we can offer the opportunity of further study to four students from the LEOT school.

Khamcham

Khamcham started school with us last year. He applied to join the Law School but did not gain a place. We are proud that he has continued to study and has been rewarded with a place to study Accountancy this year.

Lee Her

Miss Lee Her has studied at the LEOT School for the last two years and was a member of our excellent pre-advanced class last year.
She asked for our help in the Summer as her family could not afford to finance her final year at University. She plans to be a teacher at the completion of her course. We are very pleased that with the help of a sponsor we can grant her wish.

Miss Amphaiphone

Our third student is Miss Amphaiphone she studied in our beginners class last year.
Her ambition is to train to become a teacher.
We are very pleased as she has had a very long wait to see if she would be awarded a place at teachers training college.
Today the good news came through.
She has a place. Well done.

Xaille and his family

Xaille was another member of last years pre-advanced class. His family live in Luang Prabang. Dad is a knife make and Mum sells produce in the market. Before the family came to Luang Prabang they were farmers in the Countryside.
Xaille is very excited to be starting a four year course in Luang Prabang and is studying to become a Civil Engineer.

EYE TESTS AT LEOT SCHOOL

The LEOT school has been open in Luang Prabang for over two years

250 students have taken classes with us.

Only  2 have have glasses.

. We are pleased that Valerie a LEOT volunteer has started a project to find ways we can carry out very basic eye tests.

During her stay she met with the local hospital and gave them a selection of glasses she collected in England.

She carried basic tests to assess how many students are short sighted. 

The good news is that the majority passed this test but not all.  

We are pleased that glasses were found for one of our students. He can now confidently read the board from the back of the class.

Valerie is following up the project in the UK 

with the support of UK eye care professionals and an International NGO we can take the project further.

JEANNETTES DIARY

Yesterday was the first day of classes at the school where I work. Teachers were as prepared as they could ever be and I was ready to support and offer moral as well as practical help to those who needed it.
I awoke to torrential rain. It has been pouring down for several hours through the night,I guess the tail end of the cyclonic rain that had swept through the Philippines and Vietnam.
How to get to school? The usual river crossing by little boat was out of the question as the last of the stairs down to the river were badly damaged or missing and the river was a rushing torrent of floating debris (trees, bamboo, rubbish, all manner of things). We decided on getting a tuk tuk but the route the driver decided to take us was flooded so we had to turn back. He then proceeded down an alternate route (goat’s track!) - a muddy and very rough track until we joined up again with the main road.
Every now and then the driver had to stop and get out in the pouring rain and fiddle with something underneath, which was a bit of a worry but we arrived at the school and had to wade across the body of water at the bottom of the drive until we made it inside.
Almost 10am and time for classes to begin. No students. Gradually a trickle of students arrived, mostly some novices walking with big umbrellas from the nearby temples. Those on bikes had mostly stayed away. We were able to start one class with 11 students about 10.30. The Intermediate class however was cancelled as no students turned up. As the rain eased up later in the day, we were able to run with all the other classes which was great.

Not only the students were affected. One staff member rang me just before 9am to say he may be able to come later in the day, but right now his dormitory was flooded with water up to his waist and he had been moving his gear from an early hour. This message was of course not fully understood at the time as his English isn't easily understood. He had only just moved to his new premises 2 days ago and had paid his rent in advance for a few months! He arrived later in the morning in his only dry clothes and promptly emptied the contents of his bag on the staff table to dry out!
Another teacher arrived later in the morning having walked to a friend’s house and then borrowed a motorbike to ride to school. He arrived dripping wet in a pair of shorts and then proceeded into the bathroom to change into his work gear.The bridge had been washed away near his home and all the chickens and his dog were washed away. He was very upset. As soon as his last class finished, he left to try and find his dog.

A wealthy looking Lao man arrived through the day, intent on finding out why his grandson, who had had an interview, had not been accepted. We were able to locate the boy’s interview sheet and find the reason why …. he came from a wealthy family!

Then there was the female student hiding out in the staff kitchen waiting for her ex? boyfriend to disappear before she would even think about joining her class. There I am….calling out her name, to be told that yes, she was here but in the kitchen. I tried to encourage her to join the class as it had started but she was not to be persuaded. It wasn't until much later that the coast was clear as the boy went into the toilet and a teacher quickly ushered her out while we stood guard at the bathroom door!!! Can you believe it???

As it was late by the time we had supported most of the teachers through their first day of using the new curriculum books and the river was raging we had to then walk and find a willing tuk tuk driver to take us back over the other side and to eat. We were starving!! Luckily when I arrived home about 9pm, my guest house still had a trickle of water so I could take a shower. I was most grateful. The main town had had its main water pipe severed in the early morning by flood waters and many of course were without water throughout the day!
Well, I’m almost ready to leave for another day. What unexpected events will happen today to make me smile?
This morning it is still wet but not raining right now. Across from my guest house I can see the mighty Mekong rushing along, much higher today and very muddy brown colour. There are people everywhere down at the river’s edge salvaging what timber they can as it comes close to shore. Some people are very industrious and have piles of timber already stacked. This will then be left to dry and used later for firewood.

LEOT AWARDS DAY 2014

PICTURES ARE BETTER THAN WORDS

A PERFECT DAY

LEOT CELEBRATES AWARDS DAY

THE LEOT ADVANCED CLASS CELEBRATES

Nothing excites Lao people more than a party and all of us at LEOT joined in with our students when 110 students were awarded certificates of achievement at the completion of our second year of teaching in Luang Prabang.

LEOT is a small UK charity with large ambitions. We were founded in 2006 and have to date assisted over 250 disadvantaged students with their education. Our school will admit over 150 students to study this week. Through our scholarship scheme we also assist 25 students study at university.

Our students live very busy lives. They study at high school and university. Many hold down part time jobs and study part time at the LEOT school five days a week.

I love to see so many happy faces of students that love to study with us. To mark such an important day we were joined by members of our local village committee and young musicians that entertained us. We played games and enjoyed a fantastic meal together.

Our school depends on the help of donors, teachers and volunteers.

Many thanks to all of you.

I am looking forward to Wednesday when we start our third year of teaching.